


bloody but you cannot see the bone

by dreamwaffles



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Canonical Character Death, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Daemons, Gen, Horror, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27439354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamwaffles/pseuds/dreamwaffles
Summary: The Nie sect customarily name their sabers for their daemons. Behind this tradition lies a horrific secret. Fusion with His Dark Materials (everyone has daemons).
Comments: 17
Kudos: 28





	bloody but you cannot see the bone

**Author's Note:**

> Title help from [sprx77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprx77/pseuds/sprx77); thanks so much! Thank you also to the friends who read over it, especially [jelenedra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelenedra/pseuds/jelenedra) who convinced me to make the last part "more claustrophobic" and thus ended up with it being one of my favorite (read: most horrifying) parts.

This is the most secret piece of Nie saber lore: that during their forging, they are fed not only their wielder’s blood—an archaic custom that was once common enough, if considered rather barbaric by today’s cultivation standards—but also a _piece of their wielder’s daemon._ (Nie Mingjue’s Baxia prowls at his side with one fang hanging over her lip, and not one person, _not one,_ has ever thought to ask why she only ever fully bares the left one.)

This is Nie Huisang’s secret: that when he and his Yizhen went to forge their saber, one month after they had settled, they could not bear to take a piece that could not be replaced (something small, yes, something that can be hidden or explained away by a rough night hunt, but something that can never be grown back—a true _sacrifice_ ), but instead plucked only a feather, thus both dooming their cultivation path and saving themself from eventual qi deviation. Yizhen screamed during the forging, as all Nie daemons scream (and the other Nie daemons howled and screeched and roared back in witness from the cave mouth, as is their custom) and he has never flown in view of another Nie disciple since. To do so would reveal his wingtip whole, his flight still swift and strong and even.

Should the truth behind the Nie saber spirits ever be known—that underlying their ferocity and bloodlust lies a daemon fragment’s grief that their other half has moved on, that within them lies a piece that has not, that _cannot_ melt into Dust—all other cultivation sects would unite, ignoring differences, ignoring the worst of blood feuds, in order to _obliterate_ the obscenity that is the Nie sect. All of them would work single-minded until not one person who shared Nie blood walked the earth, until not one reference to their name was even passingly mentioned in the oldest, dustiest record. 

The Nies know this well, and keep their surly silence.

One out-sect person has ever realized their truth: Jin Guangyao, at the moment of his death, sealed into a coffin with Nie Mingjue’s beloved corpse and his saber Baxia. As he thumped down on da-ge’s body, his daemon knocked away by a lash of wind as Baxia yowled through the air to pin him and the lid _slammed_ down to encase them in darkness, Jin Guangyao felt not her cold, well-worn hilt at his chest, but the horrible phantom weight of _claws_ on both his shoulders. Jin Guangyao was at a bad angle, his head pinned back to bare his throat, but the shadows in the coffin (and where is his _mother,_ this was _her_ resting place—) were illuminated, dimly, by the red shine of dead eyes where eyes _cannot be—_

Guangyao’s Huai Zhi had just enough time to scream her name in horror when she snarled, ripping the air again from the coffin with the sound that Wen cultivators and fierce corpses alike trembled to hear, but the Nie sect’s custom of naming their sabers for their daemons (once, he and A-Yao thought it charmingly odd, now it makes an _awful_ sense to them) means that no one recognized his horrified recognition (none but Nie Huisang) before he burst into Dust. Jin Guangyao’s throat was ripped out where no witnesses could see, and his fine robes rended by ghost claws at shoulder and legs as the temple collapsed, Baxia sating her rage as the temple collapsed above her, atop Nie Mingjue’s still-rattling bones.

Sprawled on the floor and clutching his (self-inflicted) wound, Nie Huisang could not, _must_ not smile, but Yizhen, fully buried in his hair from pretend fright, fluffed his feathers in satisfaction and _preened_.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not Chinese, nor do I speak or read it, but I’ve done my best using [this post](https://drwcn.tumblr.com/post/630197352084504576/how-to-name-your-chinese-characters-last) as a reference: Yizhen is named for 忆 (yì) - memory 真 (zhēn) - true. I follow the convention that Huisang’s daemon was named by his mother’s daemon, with hope that he’d take on these virtues; however as we know, Nie Huisang took them to their extremes for the love of his brother because...I love pain. 
> 
> Yes, both Nie Huisang and Meng Yao have male daemons; extrapolate from that what you will. Baxia’s female, and I deliberately did not specify what type of large cat she is.
> 
> Yizhen is a Chinese grey shrike, because shrikes are butcherbirds, and also, [LOOK AT THIS LIL FELLA](http://deanar.org.uk/China2015/chinesegyshrike.htm), he’s totally an NHS bird. (fun fact about shrikes: they impale their prey to save it for later.) At their saber forging, they were supposed to sacrifice a bit of bone at the wingtip, but obviously they did not. (instead they used a primary feather, which grew back.)
> 
> Jin Guangyao’s daemon is Huai Zhi, 怀 (huái) - to miss, to possess 志 (zhì) - aspiration / the will, his mother wanting him to achieve greatness, and he is a [goliath birdwing](https://www.butterflyidentification.com/goliath-birdwing.htm) butterfly. They are very showy when their wings are spread, but very camouflaged when their wings are closed; they are also one of the few poisonous butterflies.
> 
> * * *
> 
> This fic has been converted for free using [AOYeet!](https://aoyeet.space)


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